I wrote the Inside Wall Street column at Business Week Magazine for 28 years, through December 30, 2009. It was one of the most influential market columns as it moved stocks that I highlighted each week. BW had a yearly ScoreCard Report that tracked the performance of the stocks I mentioned, and the results confirmed their positive impact..I also wrote two books: “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Street-Dark-Making-Money/dp/0070402566"Secrets of the Street, the Dark Side of Making Money,” published by McGraw-Hill in 1995, and “Gene Marcial’s Seven Commandments of Stock Investing,” published by FT Press in 2008. I resumed writing the “Inside Wall Street” column for AOL DailyFinance after Bloomberg acquired BW in December 2009. Subsequently, I moved the column to MSN.com after AOL merged with the Huffington Post. I then started writing for Forbes.com with a new column, “Street Beat,” in mid-April 2011, where I expect my readers will follow me.

Of late, cable operators and cable-TV companies have attracted fresh investor attention, thanks in part to cable king John Malone. That’s because Malone, whose DNA is almost all about deal-making, is believed determined to acquire Time Warner Cable (TWC), the second largest U.S. cable operator behind Comcast (CMCSA). But Comcast represents a thorn on Malone’s side right now, as the No. 1 cable operator is also as eager to gobble up Time Warner Cable.

All these were previewed in my other column (Inside Wall Street, MSN.com, Jul. 4, 2013) headlined: “Malone Wants Time Warner Cable – The Second Largest U.S. Cable Operator Could End Up Getting Swallowed By Rival (Charter Communications).” Malone, who is chairman of Liberty Media (LMCA) recently purchased a 27% stake in Charter, the fourth largest U.S. cable operator, which he could use to buy Time Warner Cable, or to merge it with Charter.

While speculation is raging about a possible takeover or merger deal, some pros have started eyeballing another company in the industry as an attractive investment bet: Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBGI), one of the largest and most diversified U.S. television broadcasting companies. It owns and operates 164 TV stations that reaches nearly 39% of U.S. households. Sinclair’s stations are affiliated with all the major networks, including NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, CW, Univision, MyTV, and Aztec.

“Sinclair has grown rapidly through acquisitions in the past two years to assume a market leadership position in a local broadcast industry where we believe both fundamentals and investor sentiment are improving markedly,” says Westcott Rochette, analyst at S&P Capital IQ.

He has a “strong buy” recommendation on the stock, currently trading at $32 a share — way up from its 52-week low of $10, and not far from its year’s high of $36.57. Rochette’s price target is $40 a share.

The analyst says he anticipates stronger and “outsized earnings growth” over the next several years, supported by “stronger retransmission fees, digital coverage expansion, political advertising, and a stable local advertising market.” Although Sinclair has grown mostly through acquisitions, his positive recommendation isn’t dependent on any further acquisitions, but rather on the bright prospects of its existing assets portfolio.

Rochette figures Sinclair’s earnings will decline this year to $1.23 a share, from $1.78 in 2012, due to merger-related costs and the lack of heavy political advertising in a non-election year. But the analyst anticipates a steep increase in 2014, to $2.81 a share on projected revenues of $2 billion, “as synergies from acquisitions ramp up and election-year political advertising resumes,” says Rochette. For 2015, he expects Sinclair will earn $3.20 a share.

Investment firm Benchmark’s Edward J. Atorino, a veteran media and broadcasting industry analyst, is also bullish on Sinclair, and believes the stock merits a premium valuation “because of its size and track record.” The company has an “improving balance sheet, strong cash-flow generation, and further equity value generated through ongoing acquisitions,” notes Atorino.

He expects Sinclair will continue pursuing a roll-up acquisition strategy, “to build out its smaller market portfolio while adding to its existing mid-market holdings.” Atorino also sees an opportunity for increased retransmission revenues and says Sinclair “could benefit on a long-term basis from increased spectrum space as a large-scale multi-channel television broadcaster.”

The huge ramp of political advertising is a big positive for Sinclair. S&P Capital IQ’s Rochette notes that the 2014 mid-term elections are setting up to be another contentious political season, with control of both the House and the Senate up for grabs. And 2016 “appears poised to greatly exceed the 2012 spending records, with two open primaries, and Republicans and Democrats vying for the White House,” he adds.

Benchmark’s Atorino has a higher price target for Sinclair’s stock of $42 a share, based on his estimated 2014 earnings of $3.05 a share on projected revenues of $2.02 billion, up from an estimated 2013 earnings of $1.17 a share on projected revenues of $1.36 billion.

As much as Sinclair has been a busy acquiror in the industry, the company could also definitely end up as a takeover target. That possibility and its potentially higher valuation as a buyout candidate hasn’t yet been reflected in the analysts’ valuation on the stock.

Without doubt, its valuation as a potential target would be much higher than current projections on the stock’s worth.

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